About This Issue

During John Paul II’s pontificate, he repeatedly challenged the Church to “breathe with both lungs,” acknowledging the important contributions of Eastern and Western Christianity. While the Latin Church made obvious contributions to the religious history of the United States, Eastern Christians also impacted U.S. Catholicism, immigrating principally from the Middle East and Eastern Europe beginning in the late nineteenth century. These diverse faith communities include self-governing particular churches in full communion with the Holy See and members of Eastern Orthodox churches. Often neglected in histories of the Catholic Church in the U.S., this theme issue represents a modest attempt to explore Eastern Christianity’s historical significance to U.S. Catholicism.

We are grateful to the contributors, scholars and clergy, of these various traditions. Ivan Kaszczak is pastor of Holy Trinity Ukrainian Catholic Church in Kerhonkson, New York and St. John the Baptist Ukrainian Catholic Church in Hunter/Jewett Center, New York. Joel Brady is instructor in the Slavic Languages and Literatures Department at the University of Pittsburgh. Mark M. Morozowich is Dean of the School of Theology and Religious Studies at The Catholic University of America, Washington, D.C. Georges T. Labaki is professor of law and political science at Notre Dame University in Zouk Mosbeh, Lebanon. Raymond A. Bucko, S.J., is professor of anthropology at Creighton University, Omaha, Nebraska, and visiting research scholar at Fordham University, New York. His co-author is Seth Bourg, a senior honors student, also of Fordham University.